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Basic Training: Intro to Writing for Women's Magazines

Course is closed.

DURATION/TIME
8 weeks
Tuesdays
March 14 - May 9
7-10 pm

LEVEL
Beginner

LOCATION
New York (Soho)

PRICE
$499 ($475 for )
more info

Course Details

Women's magazines offer an abundance of opportunities for freelance writers, from newsy "front of book" snippets to personal essays, profiles, health features, and travel stories. Writing for them is a high-profile and potentially lucrative business, but you need to learn how to get your foot in the door and to write the queries and articles that will get the assigning editors' attention. This class will teach you everything you need to know about the business before breaking in.

This course is designed for non-journalist writers looking to make the leap to writing for women's magazines. Over the course of eight weeks, students will workshop two women's magazine-related pieces, including a perfectly polished, no-fail pitch letter. Students will also receive weekly lectures on every angle of the business.

In this class, you can expect to learn:
  • The different types of articles women's magazines are crying out for
  • Which magazines are likely to go for your story
  • How to create captivating stories that editors will buy and readers will love
  • How to write pitch letters that no sane editor would ignore  
  • How to approach, court, and cultivate relationships with editors
  • How to understand the market and detect changes
By the end of class, students can expect to have:
Two salable pieces, pitch letters to match, and enough knowledge to survive and thrive in the world of freelancing for women's magazines.

Admission Requirements:
Please submit a letter of interest, including a brief work history.

Instructor Bio

Melissa Walker's Courses

No courses available at this time.

Melissa Walker
Melissa Walker has been the senior features editor at ELLEgirl magazine and the prom editor at Seventeen. She freelances regularly for women's magazines, and has written for Glamour, Marie Claire, Ladies Home Journal, Prevention, Fitness, and More. She's currently working on a trio of young adult novels for Penguin. The third one, Violet in Private, came out in August and her fourth, Lovestruck Summer, will come out in May from HaperCollins.

Testimonials


I loved Melissa's class -- she's a great teacher and her industry knowledge and expertise is impressive. It was very helpful to have my work critiqued by a professional and now I'm pitching magazines with more confidence than I had before taking the course. -- Alycia Kilpatrick

"Melissa created an environment that simultaneously encouraged us and stimulated us to think about the needs of our constituents and the publications that market to them. We learned so much in such a short time that it may qualify as one of the best-spent ten weeks of my life." -- Alyce Stone

"My career has been catapulted into dreamland since taking Melissa's class. I am now working in the News department of Celebrity Weekly two days a week and I owe it to Melissa. It was well worth my time and money." -- Jeremiah Perez, cooordinator, Baby Phat

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